Probation for two, jail for one in energy assistance scam

WOODBURY — Two members of a family were sentenced Friday to probationary terms while a third was ordered to spend a year in jail for assisting a family member who was a local administrator of the New Jersey Home Energy Assistance (HEA) Program to steal from the state program, Attorney General Paula T. Dow said.

The administrator, Constance Campbell, 24, of Chester, Pa., pleaded guilty to second-degree official misconduct on Feb. 26 for stealing $24,000 from the program.

Campbell’s sister, Patsy Campbell, 30, of Chester, Pa., was sentenced to three years of probation by Superior Court Judge M. Christine Allen-Jackson on a charge of misapplication of entrusted property or property of government. She is responsible, along with her sister, for paying restitution of $4,710 to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs, which administers the HEA Program.

Their brother, Dennis Campbell, 38, of Philadelphia, was sentenced by Allen-Jackson to 364 days in the Gloucester County Jail and placed on probation for two years. His wife, Hollyann Allen, 37, was sentenced to three years of probation. Dennis Campbell and Allen —each convicted of theft by deception — must pay back $5,296 along with Constance Campbell.

Two other sisters, Denise Campbell, 36, of Penns Grove, and Priscilla Campbell, 22, of Paulsboro, pleaded guilty to misapplication of entrusted property or property of government and were admitted into the Pre-Trial Intervention program on Feb. 26. They were ordered to pay combined restitution of $9,431, along with Constance Campbell.

Constance Campbell is scheduled to be sentenced on May 27 by Judge Allen-Jackson. The state will recommend a sentence of five years in state prison. She is responsible for payment of full restitution of $24,000 to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs.

An investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau revealed that Constance Campbell used her position as an HEA manager for Tri-County Community Action to process false HEA applications for herself and the five family members who were charged. Tri-Community Action is a nonprofit contracted by the state to administer the HEA program in Cumberland, Gloucester and Salem counties.

Constance and her family members received a total of $24,010 in benefits for which they were not eligible, including $15,000 in HEA checks intended for heating oil purchases. They traded the checks for cash from a Paulsboro-based heating oil supplier, Thomas J. Harris, 66, of Woolwich, owner and sole proprietor of Harris Fuel Oil.

Thomas Harris pleaded guilty on Aug. 10 to charges of financial facilitation of criminal activity (money laundering) and misapplication of entrusted property and property of government. He admitted that he defrauded the HEA Program of $400,000 by offering low-income beneficiaries of the program cash for their state-issued assistance checks instead of fuel to heat their homes. He faces four years in state prison and must pay restitution of $152,111, representing the total proceeds of the HEA checks he fraudulently acquired minus the amounts he paid to the beneficiaries from those proceeds. His sentencing is scheduled for May 27.